News: Prices Of Cocaine

News: Prices Of Cocaine, COCAINE can be bought for as little as £1 on Gloucestershire’s streets – with the quantity of drugs confiscated in Gloucester rocketing in just 12 months. Class A drugs like heroin and cocaine are causing real problems, with prices as low as ever and record amounts being snared by police. An average price per line of cocaine is between £2 and £4 across the county, but charities say it can be found for as little as £1.

Ecstasy pills, which used to cost £20 a time, are now on the market for £1.50.

Tony France, partnership manager for the Nelson Trust, a drugs misuse charity, said: “It is scary. The impact of cannabis on a developing mind can be huge.

“You can see this when you compare figures for mental health difficulties in the 1980s with now.”

In the whole of 2010 553g of cocaine was seized in the city, compared to this year when officers have recovered a massive 4,358g of the drug.

Last year 1,675g of heroin was snared by cops, whereas this year a combined haul of 8,669g of the Class A drug has been seized.

These dramatic figures are just two examples of a considerable increase in the confiscation of all drugs across the board, including ecstasy which has gone up from 72g to 247g in a year and mephedrone from 160g to 515g.

One drug user from Gloucester, 25, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes this represents a growing problem for the city.

Easier

He said: “I have definitely noticed that it’s easier to get hold of drugs than it used to be.

“There seems to be more of it about, and kids as young as 13 are getting into all sorts of drugs.”

The statistics for this year go up to and including November 16.

Since then there have been multiple drug raids in the city.

On December 2 officers swooped on the Golden Heart pub in Tredworth where they found Class A and Class B drugs.

Four days later three people were arrested in dawn raids across Gloucester suspected of being part of a £1million drugs ring.

Chief Inspector Richard Burge, of Gloucestershire police, said: “We do not believe these figures necessarily represent an upturn in the amount of drugs on the streets of Gloucester.

“They indicate continuing improvements in our intelligence gathering and more calls from the community.”

While Cheltenham has a long history of people using heroin, the number of new users has reduced. Tony France said young people were more inclined to buy crack cocaine.

Mr France said: “Cheltenham has a significant community of heroin users, but it is an older generation and we are not seeing young people coming through with an addiction.”

He added there were also a greater number of “legal highs” available in Cheltenham. “The danger is that is at a young age you develop a sense of normality in taking powders to alter your sense of consciousness and you are more likely to move onto other drugs,” he said.